She made a dismissing motion with her hands. “No it’s not.” She looked over at Lucas nervously. His eyes remained closed, his breathing regular. Dmitry doubted if the Russian National Orchestra playing Swan Lake would wake him.
“Relax Elena he’s dead to the world and yes,” he stared into her eyes. “Yes. You did what you said you’d do. Until death does you part. I know you think that that is all you get but it’s not.”
He had watched his sister fall apart after Nikolai’s death and had wished to ease her pain somehow knowing full well he couldn’t. Slowly she had begun to heal but still she had not gone back into the world of dating. He had tried on several occasions to come out with him but she had declined each time. He was surprised when he had felt the vibes bouncing back and forth between Elena and Lucas. He hadn’t seen Elena show any man that much interest in a long time.
“I love Nikolai Dmitry now drop it.”
“There’s all kind of love. Just because you love Nikolai does not mean you can’t fall for Lucas. I know you like him and it’s the same for him.”
Elena frowned. “He said that?” she again looked over at Lucas as if expecting him to answer her question.
Dmitry followed her gaze. Lucas wasn’t exactly the type of man he saw for Elena – another Nikolai - but that seemed to be the kind she was attracted to. He admitted that Lucas seemed like a good guy. The kind you could trust, a man whose word and promise meant everything. He believed Lucas when he said he would get Elena out of the mess she was in.
“He didn’t have to. It’s written all over his face Elena. Remember I’m a guy too. I know what a man looks like when he’s interested in a female.”
It may have been a while since he had last looked at any woman like that but he knew the signs and they were all there. Lucas most certainly had the hots for Elena. He was surprised the room didn’t burst into flames when Lucas would look at her. He also seemed the type to be possessive of his woman and protect her no matter what.
“To sleep with me maybe,” Elena said, denying any deep feelings she and Lucas may have for each other.
Dmitry grinned. “More than likely,” he conceded. He wasn’t stupid enough to assume that Lucas’s intentions were entirely honorable. “But I think it’s more than that and what’s more I see what he’s doing to you. You’re happy even with the entire government on your ass and the situation what it is. I haven’t seen you like this since before Nikolai died. You’re practically glowing, it would be hard not to notice.”
And she was. That was the strangest part. He practically needed sunglasses just to look at her. Any man that could bring her back into the world of the living was okay in his books.
“Shouldn’t you be working on that crystal thingy?” she said, deflecting from the issue, looking closely at the crystal he had set up to catch light, not as brilliantly as a diamond would but still nice enough.
“I’m taking a page out of your book Elena and am multi-tasking,” he said the word as if foreign to him, tasting it.
Elena flopped down on the stool beside him and watched as he begun the extensive process of retrieving the data from the crystal, sending monochromatic light beams into certain angles of the photorefractive crystal and retrieving the data. It would take some time to sort out the layers of 3-D holographic images that he collected. He heard Elena let out a reluctant sigh.
“I admit I like him but it can’t go anywhere.”
Dmitry didn’t look up at her, figuring she would do better to bare her soul if it was more like confession, giving up your dirty secrets anonymously. All alone in the darkness without spectators waiting to scrutinize every word spoken and action made.
“Because of Nikolai?”
Elena shrugged. “Partly – mostly. Besides the last twenty-four hours have been a blur of nothing but adrenaline and anxiety. No it’s impossible and you know it.” She began to work herself up, her face reddening as her blood boiled. “Even if I did want to and I’m not saying I do. But he’s going to go back to America in a few days and that’ll be it.”
Would it Elena?
“You could always follow him,” Dmitry suggested.
She shook her head. “Even if I thought we’d have a chance I could never leave you. You’re the only family I have left.”
He knew she would say that. Frankly he thought it was just an excuse on her part. Fear of the unknown. His sister had never been much of an adventurer. In this day and age of email and airplanes keeping in touch was easy. She was just scared and refused to admit it to herself.
“You could if you were willing to take the leap.”
Elena crossed her arms under her breasts in a defensive gesture and glared at him.
“Don’t start Dmitry.”
Dmitry knew he wouldn’t be able to get through to her. She had built up a nice wall around her heart and would most likely die before she would listen to reason. Her Russian stubbornness really came out when she was cornered. He decided to let the subject drop right after he got the last word in.
Dmitry shrugged. “Fine. Be an ostrich. The only one you’re hurting is yourself. I just don’t want you to look back one day and say ‘what if’. I loved Nikolai Elena but your life shouldn’t end just because his did.”
Chapter 18
Lucas could smell lavender. He slowly opened his eyes and blinked the cobwebs away. For a moment he forgot where he was, he could feel the kink in his neck and attempted to dislodge it. He wondered how long he had been asleep. His eyes felt gritty and he raised his hand to his face and rubbed at his eyes to remove the sleep before sliding his hand over his jaw. He felt the stubble poking his callused palm. He looked over at Dmitry who amazingly looked as if he had slept for eight hours, only the creases in his clothes and the five o’clock shadow darkening the bottom on his face was any indication that that was not what had happened.
Elena stood beside her brother. They were both at eye level now that Dmitry was sitting, her light hair hung loosely about her shoulders. She was dressed in dark blue jeans and a white fitted top, her delicate feet were bare and he could see the light baby pink nail polish on her toenails. She was where the lavender smell was coming from, another left over item from an ex-girlfriend Dmitry neglected to throw away, that or he liked the scent which was currently growing on Lucas as was the person who was wearing it.
“What time is it?” he croaked. His mouth was dry from sleep. He ran his tongue over his furry teeth. He really needed to spend some time on hygiene.
Dmitry and Elena both looked over at him.
“Ten thirty,” Dmitry replied after consulting the time and date in the taskbar of his computer.
He had had a good six hours sleep. He felt somewhat refreshed and the rest will be solved by a hot mug of strong coffee.
“We thought it best to let you sleep,” Elena said.
Dmitry rolled his eyes and discreetly pointed at Elena, indicating that it was in fact her that thought it best. The thought of Elena caring about him sent his stomach into flips. It had been some time since anyone besides Jim or Maggie had cared for his well being.
“Big momma bear this one,” Dmitry said nodding towards Elena. “She wouldn’t let me disturb you.”
Lucas was wide awake now and got to his feet in one swift motion. “You found something?”
Dmitry nodded, looking pleased as punch. “I did indeed.”
Lucas walked over to them trying to avoid smelling the alluring lavender. He frowned at what he saw on the computer screen. There were several windows open on the desktop and what he was seeing was a bunch of squiggly lines and Russian characters. He knew he wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box but what the hell was he looking at?
“Is that everything?”
Elena nodded. “Dmitry uploaded all the data about an hour ago.”
Lucas once again took in the computer screen. Dmitry clicked the mouse a few times, changing the image on the screen into a clockwise position and altering the contrast of the pixels. L
ucas soon recognized the image as a blueprint of an old building set out in a long rectangle.
“Do either of you recognize that building?” he asked of them.
Elena and Dmitry both looked at each other and nodded.
“Well?” he demanded, impatient now knowing that he was missing something.
“The Winter Palace in St Petersburg,” Dmitry finally said.
Lucas frowned, why put the detailed plan of the palace on a crystal for safe keeping. Why was it so important, he assumed you couldn’t just get it anywhere but then wasn’t it a tourist spot, famous for being the last residence of the royal family or something? He never had been good at history. He was a ‘right now’ man.
“I don’t get it. What would be the point of blowing up the Palace?” he wondered aloud.
“Millions of people visit the palace and connecting State Hermitage Museum every year. It could just be the volume of people. You’ve said before Ducane has killed before,” Elena pondered.
“I just don’t feel like we’re on the right track,” he said.
Dmitry asked the question they were all thinking. “Then why would Nikolai go to so much trouble as to put it on the crystal?”
They all stood there in silence until Lucas broke it, he squinted his eyes at the scribble on screen. “What’s that?” he asked, pointing to tiny lettering.
Dmitry used his mouse to make it bigger.
“It’s a date, 7th of November.”
Elena frowned. “That’s today. Whatever Nikolai knew was going to happen is occurring now.”
“What else do you have?” Lucas asked Dmitry.
Dmitry clicked his mouse button. He quickly sorted through the rest of the data he had collected from the crystal. “Besides the map? An itinerary does that help? I can’t make out any more.”
Lucas frowned. “An itinerary?”
Dmitry nodded.
“Zimtovich,” Elena said softly. He could hear the disappointment in her voice. “That bastard. He was selling information.”
Lucas didn’t feel the need to comment, he had already figured that out long ago. What he couldn’t wrap his head around was what it all meant. What did one get when they added a schematic to a museum, an itinerary, a few dead Russians, a known terrorist or two and a weapons trader. Frustrated he said, “For what though?”
Elena turned to her brother. “Could you find out where this year’s UN summit is being held and when?”
Dmitry nodded. “Sure just give me a minute.” He pulled up Google.ru, Russia’s Search Engine and started typing into the search field.
“What are you thinking?” Lucas’s eyes didn’t leave her face. He could tell she was onto something, her body practically vibrating with excited energy.
She looked up at him. “I should’ve picked up on it before but my mind was locked on Moscow.”
“What are you talking about?” Lucas asked.
Elena huffed out a deep breath. “Remember when you asked me why red flags didn’t come up when Ducane entered the country and I replied that it was impossible to monitor everyone at the moment?”
“Yeah something about Grand Central Station and the UN Summit,” he replied, still unsure as to what was going through her mind.
She rolled her eyes at what he had taken away from their conversation. God that seemed like so long ago rather than just the day before yesterday. So much had happened since that time in her office.
“Yes, delegates from all over have been flying into Moscow and St Petersburg for days now, you were lucky to get a seat when you did.”
Lucas thought about that. Luck wasn’t quite what he would call it but then it had led him to Elena so it wasn’t all that bad. He heard Dmitry cuss. He was beginning to remember the word. It seemed a favorite of Elena’s and apparently Dmitry’s.
“What?” he asked.
Dmitry turned to him. “The UN Summit is being held on November 7th at four pm at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg,” he announced. “It’s quite the fanfare. The annual peace conference coincides with the anniversary of the revolution.”
Lucas couldn’t believe it, it was now all falling together thanks to Nikolai Nagregor getting them the information from beyond the grave.
Way to go out with a bang!
He could visualize Nikolai standing there, confronting his assassin, gun in hand saying, “Yippee ki-yay…”
“We have to get there, what’s the fastest way to St Petersburg?” Lucas asked the natives, slowly the pieces of the puzzle were coming together, unfortunately not quick enough for his liking.
This was why Michael Ducane was here and it made Lucas sick to his stomach. How many people would lose their lives if he failed today? Hundreds? Thousands? People who were trying to make the world a better place. That was the kicker and that was why Ducane needed the Government mole, with such a high profile event, security would be crawling all over the Palace. It would be hard to smuggle in a bomb without the proper help.
Elena answered, “Fly but I wouldn’t recommend it. SVR will be all over us.”
“That’s not all Lucas,” Dmitry interrupted them, his voice foreboding.
Lucas let out a long suffering sigh. Could things get any worse?
“What is it?”
“Check out who will be at the summit.”
Lucas and Elena moved closer to the computer screen, Lucas only realizing now he couldn’t read the Russian letters, so instead he watched Elena’s face frown as she read. Dmitry put his finger on the screen, pointing to where she needed to read. Lucas watched the blood drain from her face. Shell shocked she looked over at Lucas who was preparing himself to catch her should she faint. He figured a light wind would knock her off her feet.
“Well who is it?”
“Sergei Smirnov,” she whispered.
Lucas raised an eyebrow, whoever this Sergei Smirnov was he was in big fucking trouble.
“Our President,” Dmitry elaborated. “And he won’t be alone, your President will also be there. Air Force One just touched down in St Petersburg earlier this morning.”
Fuck. Lucas remembered Jim telling him about the President visiting but he hadn’t realized it was so soon. This was not good. He had to talk to Fitzgibbon, let him know what was the fuck was happening. Maybe he could do something from his end. Jim was after all rather resourceful and hoarded favors like some people collected baseball cards. He would have a contact somewhere that could surely warn the Secret Service.
“We have to get to St Petersburg.”
Elena nodded. She had obviously been thinking the exact same thing. “We’ll have to leave right away it takes approximately four hours by train from Moscow.”
Lucas did the math in his head they would barely have enough time.
Dmitry turned back to his computer and deftly brought up the railway’s website. He typed quickly on the keyboard, found the tickets he was after and clicked on ‘buy now’ with his mouse.
“You can’t use a credit card Dmitry, who knows how far SVR have gone with their man-hunt,” Elena warned. “They might have flagged your information as well as mine.”
“No worries Elena,” Dmitry said as he continued to fill in the pertinent information using aliases for Elena and Lucas. “I’ll just use the dummy account I set up, untraceable even by the Russian Government.”
There was a hint of pride in his voice, no arrogance, just fact. Dmitry knew he was good and had the skills to back up the claim.
“Dmitry, why do you have a dummy account?” Elena couldn’t help but ask. Her hands once again going to her hips and her eyes narrowed. Oh boy. She certainly looked pissed. Lucas would hate to be in Dmitry’s shoes right now. He had seen many women pissed. Most of the time at him but the way Elena was looking right now was way past his experience. She practically had steam coming out her ears. This could turn into a long discussion. Lucas placed a gentle hand on her arm.
“Another time?” he said and was relieved when she nodded. “Go get your things re
ady.”
Elena went to retrieve her purse from the kitchen. Lucas gave Dmitry a level look, the entire family was growing on him, he thought. God he had no hope.
“You do realize you’ll be revisiting that subject when this is all over don’t you?” he asked.
Dmitry nodded solemnly. “You’d think she’d be happy since it’s come in handy in this instance.”
“Women Dmitry,” Lucas said, as if that was the explanation. “You can never really tell with them.”
“Don’t I know it, if it’s not a girlfriend it’s Elena. I get no peace. You have any sisters?”
“No, I’m an only child.”
“Lucky you – some of the time, she can really be a blessing but she can also be a -”
They broke off as Elena came back into the room, she sent Dmitry a glare who promptly turned back to his computer and pressed the print button and announced he was done.
Elena gave him a smile. “You know you’re wasted in the public sector right, SVR could really use you.”
“Call me crazy Elena, but I don’t particularly want to work for the agency that wants to hang you out to dry.”
Elena conceded.
“One more thing Dmitry,” Lucas said. “You mind giving us a lift?”
Chapter 19
Dmitry pulled up out the front of Moscow Leningradsky Station. He set the car in park and waited for Elena and Lucas to get out. The two of them had been trying to come up with a plan on the ride over. They hadn’t been able to come to an understanding.
“We should call Mishkin,” Elena had said.
Lucas shook his head. “What if he’s involved?”
Exasperated she glared at him. “Well we can’t exactly walk into the summit guns blazing now can we? Isn’t that your plan?”
Dmitry grinned like the Cheshire Cat. “That’s rather a suicide mission isn’t it? Those FSB boys don’t fool around.”
“When I get to the station I’ll call Jim,” he said simply.
Elena got huffy. “And how is it we can trust your boss and not mine?”
Russian Law (Law Series ) (Volume 1) Page 12